Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Workers Continue To Lose Jobs: ADP Report

371,000 jobs were lost in July according to today's ADP Employment Report. June was revised to a loss of 463,000 jobs (previous estimate was -473,000). The goods producing sector continues to fare much worse than the services sector, losing 4 times as many jobs on a percentage basis.

= Since (and including) 12/2007: 6,543,000 jobs lost

= 18 consecutive months of job losses (average loss of 368,000)

= The economy now has the same number of jobs as it did in March, 2004

The BLS will release its report on Friday. My guess: loss of 355,000 jobs

"The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency. Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We're all faced throughout our lives with agonizing decisions, moral choices. Some are on a grand scale, most of these choices are on lesser points. But we define ourselves by the choices we have made. We are, in fact, the sum total of our choices. Events unfold so unpredictably, so unfairly. Human happiness does not seem to have been included in the design of creation. It is only we, with our capacity to love, that give meaning to the indifferent universe. And yet, most human beings seem to have the ability to keep trying and even to find joy from simple things, like their family, their work, and from the hope that future generations might understand more."